Levon Yepiskoposyan

Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, Yerevan, Armenia · Laboratory of Ethnogenomics

The newly excavated rockshelter of Yeghegis-1 in Armenia reflects an occupation of five centuries, as attested by radiocarbon dates from ∼ 4100 to 4000 cal BCE in the lowest layer to ∼ 3600–3500 cal BCE at the top. It is a partially collapsed cave in which pastoralists, we hypothesize, wintered with their herds. The stone tool assemblage is predomi...

Excavations at Yeghegis-1, a rockshelter in southern Armenia, reveal long-term human habitation from the late fifth to mid-fourth millennia BC. Here, the authors present a preliminary overview of the materials recovered from the site and highlight the potential of ongoing research to shed light on Chalcolithic human lifeways in the region.

Western Eurasia witnessed several large-scale human migrations during the Holocene1–5. Here, to investigate the cross-continental effects of these migrations, we shotgun-sequenced 317 genomes—mainly from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods—from across northern and western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genot...

Cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs) are complex disorders with a heterogenous phenotype, which are caused by multiple factors including genetic factors. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs45539933 (p.Ala64Thr), rs10011540 (c. 112A>C), rs3811791 (c. 1766A>G), and rs1800592 (c. 3826A>G) in the UCP1 gene have been analyzed for association with CMDs...

Western Eurasia witnessed several large-scale human migrations during the Holocene. To investigate the cross-continental impacts we shotgun-sequenced 317 primarily Mesolithic and Neolithic genomes from across Northern and Western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genotypes from >1,600 ancient humans. Our analyse...

Contribution of UCP1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to susceptibility for cardiometabolic pathologies (CMP) and their involvement in specific risk factors for these conditions varies across populations. We tested whether UCP1 SNPs A-3826G, A-1766G, Ala64Thr and A-112C are associated with common CMP and their risk factors across Armenia, Gre...

The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection has become a global health concern, causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The disease symptoms and outcomes depend on the host immunity, in which the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules play a distinct role. The HLA alleles have an inter-population variability, and understanding their link to the COVID-19 in...

The contribution of UCP1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to susceptibility for cardiometabolic pathologies (CMP) and their involvement in specific risk factors for these conditions varies across populations. We tested whether UCP1 SNPs A-3826G, A-1766G, Ala64Thr and A-112C are associated with the most common CMP (cardiovascular disease, hype...

Human Y chromosome haplogroup J1-M267 is a common male lineage in West Asia. One high-frequency region—encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, southern Mesopotamia, and the southern Levant—resides ~ 2000 km away from the other one found in the Caucasus. The region between them, although has a lower frequency, nevertheless demonstrates high genetic dive...

The Armenians, a population inhabiting the region in West Asia known as the Armenian Highland, has been argued to show a remarkable degree of population continuity since the Early Neolithic. Here we test the degree of continuity of this population as well as its plausible origin, by collating modern and ancient genomic data, and adding a number of...

Distinctive peculiarities of Armenians such as their millennia-long genetic isolation and strong national identity attract a keen interest while studying the demographic history of the West Asia. Here, to examine their fine-scale matrilineal genetic structure, ancestry and relationships with neighboring populations, we analyzed 536 complete mitogen...

In this study, we explore the Late Pleistocene (LP) vertebrate faunal diversity in southeastern Lesser Caucasus based on morphological and genetic identification of fossil bones from Karin Tak cave. For the first time in this under-studied region, we used a bulk bone metabarcoding genetic approach to complement traditional morphology-based taxonomi...

The indigenous populations of inner Eurasia—a huge geographic region covering the central Eurasian steppe and the northern Eurasian taiga and tundra—harbour tremendous diversity in their genes, cultures and languages. In this study, we report novel genome-wide data for 763 individuals from Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Ta...

with In this Article, Angela M. Taravella and Melissa A. Wilson Sayres have been added to the author list (associated with: School of Life Sciences, Center for Evolution and Medicine, The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA). The author list and Author Information section have been corrected online.

The indigenous populations of inner Eurasia, a huge geographic region covering the central Eurasian steppe and the northern Eurasian taiga and tundra, harbor tremendous diversity in their genes, cultures and languages. In this study, we report novel genome-wide data for 763 individuals from Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, T...

For thousands of years the Eurasian steppes have been a centre of human migrations and cultural change. Here we sequence the genomes of 137 ancient humans (about 1× average coverage), covering a period of 4,000 years, to understand the population history of the Eurasian steppes after the Bronze Age migrations. We find that the genetics of the Scyth...

Recent ancient DNA (aDNA) studies of human pathogens have provided invaluable insights into their evolutionary history and prevalence in space and time. Most of these studies were based on DNA extracted from teeth or postcranial bones. In contrast, no pathogen DNA has been reported from the petrous bone which has become the most desired skeletal el...

Approximately 300,000 men around the globe self-identify as Ashkenazi Levites, of whom two thirds were previously shown to descend from a single male. The paucity of whole Y-chromosome sequences precluded conclusive identification of this ancestor's age, geographic origin and migration patterns. Here, we report the variation of 486 Y-chromosomes wi...

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity are metabolic disorders whose major hallmark is insulin resistance. Impaired mitochondrial activity, such as reduced ratio of energy production to respiration, has been implicated in the development of insulin resistance. Uncoupling proteins (UCPs) are proton carriers, expressed in the mitoc...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autoinflammatory disease, which is prevalent in populations of the Mediterranean ancestry. Traditionally, FMF was considered as an autosomal recessive genetic disorder; however, several studies showed that a heterozygote state might also result in disease. Mutations responsible for the disease are located in...

The South Caucasus, situated between the Black and Caspian Seas, geographically links Europe with the Near East and has served as a crossroad for human migrations for many millennia [1-7]. Despite a vast archaeological record showing distinct cultural turnovers, the demographic events that shaped the human populations of this region is not known [8...

Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U is among the initial maternal founders in Southwest Asia and Europe and one that best indicates matrilineal genetic continuity between late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer groups and present-day populations of Europe. While most haplogroup U subclades are older than 30 thousand years, the comparatively recent coales...

Y-chromosomal variation in West Asian populations has so far been studied in less detail than in the neighboring Europe. Here, we analyzed 598 Y-chromosomes from two West Asian subregions—Transcaucasia and the Armenian plateau—using 40 Y-SNPs and 17 Y-STRs and combined them with previously published data from the region. The West Asian populations...

Located at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East, the Armenian Highland served as a transition corridor for major waves of prehistoric and historic migrations. The genetic history of Armenians as an indigenous population of the region attracts keen scientific interest to resolve the puzzle of ancient Middle Eastern populations' expansion and...

Azokh Cave (also known as Azikh or Azykh) contains Pleistocene and Holocene stratified sediment infill. The site was discovered by M. Huseinov (also named Guseinov by other authors) who led the previous phase of excavations. The geographic location of the site is at an important migratory route between Africa and Eurasia. The site has yielded Middl...

Hominin remains have been discovered at Azokh Cave from three different entrance passageways during the early and present phases of excavation. Evidence for three different species of hominin – Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens – has been found at Azokh Cave. A fragment of hominin mandible was found in Azokh 1 in 1968. P...

Here we report the Simons Genome Diversity Project data set: high quality genomes from 300 individuals from 142 diverse populations. These genomes include at least 5.8 million base pairs that are not present in the human reference genome. Our analysis reveals key features of the landscape of human genome variation, including that the rate of accumu...

Readable link: http://rdcu.be/kt5n High-coverage whole-genome sequence studies have so far focused on a limited number of geographically restricted populations or been targeted at specific diseases, such as cancer. Nevertheless, the availability of high-resolution genomic data has led to the development of new methodologies for inferring populatio...

Medieval era encounters of nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe and largely sedentary East Europeans had a variety of demographic and cultural consequences. Amongst these outcomes was the emergence of the Lipka Tatars—a Slavic-speaking Sunni-Muslim minority residing in modern Belarus, Lithuania and Poland, whose ancestors arrived in these territor...